Fushin for sushi

I am spending the weekend in Port Elizabeth to celebrate a big birthday with friends. I grew up here and love the usually too short visits when I get to come "home" and catch up with old friends. 

On Friday night, we ate out at Fushin in Stanley Street, Richmond Hill. I lived a few blocks ago before I moved to Johannesburg and area was not at all close to being as cool and trendy like it is now. When I lived here, many of the houses were pretty run down and the only shop in Stanley Street was a bit of a dodgy cafe that you thought twice about entering after dark. 

A few years ago, the lovely Vovo Telo was born in a beautiful Victorian cottage and slowly the area picked up with other trendy shops and restaurants opening. Some of the more run down parts remain and old ladies still walk the streets.

At Fushin though, we ordered two sushi dishes that were out of this world. I have a fair bit of sushi both in Johannesburg and even in Asia but these two dishes shot straight up there on the "best sushi ever" contenders list. Little bit different combinations and exquisitely served.

A winner for sure!

Kruger park

I am sitting on my little patio and a kingfisher hoots in the distance. There is a little forest of Mopani trees in front of the house that overlooks the sandy riverbed. 

We arrived in the Kruger park on Thursday and stayed one night in the Satara camp. On Friday we drove north to Letaba, a camp filled with trees and small tame bushbuck wandering around between the houses. We overlook the sandy riverbed that teems with waterbuck, hippos, impala and elephants. Such peace on earth.

The view out of the patio 

The house we are staying in.

Midwinter Stylecraft

During the course of the past year, I have had a mild case of shopaholic-itis, and the objects of my affections have mainly been vintage silver plated items and crockery.

It started with buying mostly inexpensive silver plated table items... Salt and pepper sets, tea trays that have made their way to the walls of my dining room. At a point I started reading up on the few sets of teacups and saucers that I have that were my granny's. It's opened up a whole world of history. 

One set that my gran owned is cups and tennis plates (the have place for your cup and eats on one plate) made by James Kent in a chintz pattern called "Du Barry".  Since I have been watching, I can see crazy prices being reached for this one pattern... Not sure why except that it seems that have become popular around the world too. 

I have also built up a collection of Royal Albert in a pattern called "Rainbow". A lovely multicoloured ombré set - it has pastel pink, lilac, yellow, blue and turquoise. It's quite fun to scour online waiting for the right shape teacup to be listed and all I am waiting for now is the right pink set to come onto the market to complete my collection of 12 trios (teacup, saucer and cake plate). 

I could blog just about all the things I have my eye on, but this evening three little beauties from a less popular make arrived three months after I bought them. There is a cake plate, sweetie dish and a pretty jam dish with the spoon that rests in the detachable handle. 

They are made by Midwinter and the range is called Stylecraft, and they date to the 60's. They were pretty inexpensive, all three were bought for less than R200. There are some lovely patterns made by the same company designed by Jessie Tait that just scream Midcentury modern. Other pretty ranges designed by Hugh Casson were called Cannes and Riviera. 

It makes me happy to make place and a new home for pieces that were loved long ago.

Day trip to Capri

On the second day we were in Rome, we planned to do a day trip to the island of Capri. 

We booked a trip through Viator long before leaving home.  The link with the details of the trip are http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Capri-Day-Trip-from-Rome/d511-2390GRET14.  

Because we weren't staying a hotel, we didn't arrange a pick up from our hotel.   The tour company's offices were very close to Termini train station so we used the Metro to get to Termini and then walked one block to get to the tour company. There was a little corner shop near the offices, and we picked up a water and some snacks for the trip beforehand.

Because we were early, we managed to get good seats on the bus and managed to sit together. The bus also took people to the Pompeii site, so was quite full. The commentary was in English, Italian and Spanish and was quite repetitive! I was glad I had downloaded an audio book to listen to during the trip. 

The bus dropped the Capri visitors off at the port in Naples, so unfortunately we didn't see much of Naples, but did get a view of the countryside on the drive out of Rome. We passed Montecasino along the way.

The ferry set off not long after we arrived at the port. Unfortunately the weather outside was drizzly on the day we went, so we didn't get great views apart from the massive ocean liners in the harbour. 

When we got to Capri port, we were advised that the speedboats that usually take visitors to see the coastline and Blue Grotto (cave) weren't running as a result of the weather. We were quite grateful as we had more chance of exploring the island. Our guide perked up at the chance to actually show off the island, which apparently doesn't happen too often!

From the harbour, we took a very small bus up the steep hills and stopped at Capri town. The island is full of lemon tres growing and has such a Greek/ Mediterranean feel which was lovely. 

We walked through the little narrow streets of Capri town and walked through some beautiful public gardens to see the view. 

After stopping at the obligatory limoncello shop, it was off to town of Anacapri for lunch. From the reviews of the tour, we weren't expecting much but this certainly was our foodie lowlight of the whole trip! I would not like to relive the experience. In retrospect for a first time, it was an easy option to take a tour and I loved the island but if I went back I would do the research and do this independently. 

After lunch we had a chance to view the little shops in Anacapri and go on the chairlift to see the island (we didn't do this) instead we managed to find a pretty good gelato shop!

Once our guide had warmed to the group, we found him to be an avid gardener (probably not surprising as Italians seem to be keen on growing produce in the smallest of places) and he was keen to point out interesting fruits and plants I had never seen before. 

The trip ended with a ferry ride back to Naples around 5pm, and a bus ride back to Rome that meant we arrived back at the apartment at around 9pm. A long day but really worth the experience. 

Donna Hay's Classic baked cheesecake

A few weeks ago I saw a springform baking pan in Woolworths and at R150, I decided it was something I need in my kitchen.

I found the recipe for Donna Hay's classic baked cheesecake and saved it on my Pinterest board some time ago. 

I tried it yesterday, and it looks promising so far - will have to get some more experienced baked cheesecake eaters in this afternoon to test. 

It actually wasn't as hard to make as I expected. Here is the recipe...

Donna Hay Classic baked cheesecake

Filling

330g cream cheese (I needed to buy two tubs)

500g ricotta (three tubs!)

4 eggs

295g caster sugar 

60ml lemon juice

1 T grated lemon rind

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 1/2 T cornflour

1 1/2 T water (cold)

Base

40g almond meal (from my never happened macaron attempt)

105g flour

55g caster sugar

90g butter (I melted this but recipe says chopped)

Preheat oven to 150 deg C.

To make the base, rub the almond meal, flour, caster sugar and butter. Line the base of the springform pan with baking paper and press in the mixture. The recipe says to bake for 15 minutes or until light golden. I ended up baking for double that time. Set aside.

To make the filling, place the cream cheese, ricotta, eggs, sugar, lemon juice and rind and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor. I used my kitchenaid mixer with the mixer attachment as I don't have a food processor. Combine cornflour and water until smooth and add to the mixture. Process (or mix!) until smooth. 

Lightly grease the sides (I released the base and used Spray n Cook), and poured in the cheese mixture. Tap to remove and bubbles. Bake for one hour (I was worried it wasn't cooked for cooked for another 15 minutes until it was a little brown on top) and then leave it in the oven but switch off the oven for another hour. 

Donna Hay's recipe says to then refrigerate and serve when cool. I wasn't too sure when to release it from the pan. I left it in the fridge overnight and lightly went around the edges with a knife this morning before releasing the pan. It came out beautifully and looks pretty okay for a first attempt. It does seem to have a crack on the top which I suspect is because of leaving in the oven for the extra 15 minutes. Taste testing will tell!

Dinner at Red Rabbit

I have eaten lunch at Red Rabbit in Bryanston twice before and enjoyed the food and service. My husband hadn't been there though so we decided to do dinner there on a rare evening when our toddler was sleeping over at his granny's house.

The restaurant is set within the Nicolway shopping centre, but the restuarants are gently lit at night and the centre was busy on a Friday night with diners. The decor at Red Rabbit is a bit French influence with exposed brick walls and wood beams and they always had lovely woven wicker chairs at the tables.  These seemed to have been replaced by smaller chairs last night to enable seating more diners. A pity.

We enjoyed a good Meerlust red wine with our food... A crumbed Camembert starter, served with sweetish sauce and Melba toast and some tossed greens with a few strawberries. The Camembert was delicious, I was looking up recipes on Pinterest this morning to recreate this starter.

For the main course, I had the duck pie that I enjoyed but the thin potato fries on the side were a bit cold and didn't feel fresh.  My husband had a rather large prime rib that had a mustard sauce. I only had a little taste but it seemed good.  I didn't have dessert but had a mouthful of his pistachio ice cream that came with a little jug of espresso to pour over, which gave an interesting flavour to the dessert.

Nice evening with good service from the staff. Mostly I am keen though to try out a Camembert starter for myself!  The recipe I found said to dip the round of Camembert in milk, and dip in bread crumbs. You can put in the fridge overnight to keep its shape, but not necessary. To cook, spray lightly with some olive oil and bake on a tray for 15 minutes at 180 deg C, turning over halfway.  Serve with bought cranberry sauce mixed with some caramelised onions. 

Yum.

The rest of the first day in Rome

After a little rest in the apartment, we decided to take a walk to explore the area where we were staying.

I find that it's hard to tell the scale of a place until you have been there, Rome seemed big, but the central area where we stayed was very walkable. Luckily I brought very comfortable shoes with me!

 The best part about this walk was that it kind of just happened as we went along. 

The route we took was walk south along the Via del Corso, a wide street with shops, churches and lots of people. We cut across some streets to head west to the Piazza Navona.  It was actually a bit drizzly on the day we were there, but that didn't dampen my surprise and delight at seeing this beautiful space for the first time. 

After spending some time taking pictures and taking in the beautiful sculptures, we decided to keep on with our walk. We headed east, and arrived at the Piazza della Rotunda and the Pantheon.

What I didn't expect was to see such beautiful buildings right in the midst of everyday life and right in the centre of town. Maybe I didn't have many expectations. But I was once again wowed by the building that you really didn't even have to queue to get into or even buy a ticket. It was super busy inside, but there was a church service taking place as we walked around. It felt like a good place to say a little prayer.

After going inside the Pantheon, we walked east and crossed over the Via del Corso again, this time heading for the Trevi Fountain. 

Again a beautiful place, but boy was it cramped! It was one of those situations were I tried to take picture of the fountain above people's heads, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of just how crowded it was too! And lots and lots of teenagers and young people for some reason!

We ended up eating dinner close to the apartment that night, enjoying out first Italian antipasto platter and me having melanzane for dinner (aubergine bake). 

We also managed to discover a really good gelato spot called Venchi right around the corner from apartment. They also sold beautiful chocolates, but the gelato was enough to keep us returning night after night while we stayed in Rome. These are some of the chocolates, I was too busy ordering and eating my gelato to worry about photos!